Merlin Prompts for Your Inspiration!
by Hamato-Grayson
Summary: A collective of stories I have thought of around Merlin and 'what-ifs' for others to use for inspiration for their own stories to write! Chapter 2 (Golden Dreams): "Arthur" Arthur turned back towards the little body cradled in his arms with concern and unease. Merlin's head was dipped down. "Please don't leave me alone." "Never".
1. Universe Travelling

_Hello! I haven't posted on this website in a VERY long time. I have noticed in a major way that I tend to lack the inspiration to continue a story and have always been able to begin a story idea and make something up that I haven't seen a lot of or come up with ideas whilst I read another's work on here. I can branch off of one action in a scene and make three alternative new ideas that could change the story completely. I've never been great at accumulating enough lore and plot into my stories, but I am always able to write an introduction that can inspire others to write their idea of it. I love reading other people's stories, and I thought that if I can't write a completed story I could just share my ideas and leave it up to you guys! Anything that sparks inspiration from these prompts, I would love to read! I love seeing an author through their writing and connecting with the fictional characters through other's eyes. _

_And my new inspiration has become Merlin! _

_So if anyone is a massive fan of writing, PLEASE tell me if anything I write here inspires you to try something out! I would love to see your ideas and see the multitude of ideas you can make from it! That means that ANY of these stories can be used, as long as you PLEASE allow me to join your creative journey with it :) I would really love to see your amazing imaginations :D _

_Sorry for the long explanation; I hope you enjoy these little ideas and find something in them for yourself to be inspired by if you are a major writer! Tell me what you think! This shall be updated randomly, whenever I feel a story beginning, thank you! 3 _

Prompt: Someone who has watched the Merlin tv show suddenly ends up apart of the real lives of our favourite characters.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Merlin

I stood over the cliff, the wind sweeping my hair up and behind me as I smiled wistfully at the scene in front. The castle was magnificent, with light-coloured stone, smooth and winking up at me from my position. It's just like in the film, but this one I knew was the real deal. I was seeing it used for its original purpose. There was a real kingdom built here, it wasn't overrun by excited fans and tourists but real peasants and knights. Servants. A king.

_They_ were here. It had taken me an agonisingly slow number of hours full of grief and pain to realise where I was and where I had landed myself in. At first, I was too upset by my recent death, in a world where my family were, living without me and having to bury me so young. The worst thing to happen to a parent was to have to bury your own children, not see them flourish, fulfil life and build their very own family. I was too distraught to listen to the faint whisper in the back of my head telling me that there was something vaguely nostalgic about where I was. My clothes from the accident were still on and I tried my best to ignore the dried blood where my fatal wounds once were. They are gone now.

It was a weird and horrible thought, knowing that your family was grieving at the same time as you, suffering your absence while you knew you were technically alive and can't do anything about helping them, reassuring them. That's when you remember that you're _alive_ when you shouldn't be and can hear the faint sound of life, carriages, horses and a chorus of different materials made of metal and wood.

Looking over the hill now, I feel like laughing but am too worried I might end up crying afterwards and not being able to stop. This situation should be impossible, yet it's also extremely funny and exciting. What makes my uncertainty more resolved is seeing familiar french extras who played the roles of knights. And then I see one face that makes me both overwhelmed with fear and happiness.

Gwaine stuttered around the streets inside of the castle, near the gates to Camelot, smiling drunkenly. I can almost hear his accent from here. It had been so long since I had seen the show, but it was still clear as rain in my memories. This was really happening. The actors, their fictional characters, wearing their faces and living a real life in Camelot, where the legend of Arthur and Merlin wasn't just bedtime stories or myths and tales that were still told now in the 21st century.

But I wasn't in the 21st century anymore, was I?

I wiped the dried tear stains away and let a little chuckle escape my lips, "This is insane." I dragged my hands over my face exasperatedly. My pack from my trip from my past life, which is a bizarre thought, was still strapped to my back.

The memory came back to me of Merlin creating a unicorn out of smoke here and realised that's why it was so familiar. How I had remembered that from so long ago just reminded me how amazing the relationships in the show were that it made me remember such a short scene. I inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly. I looked at my bloody mess of a shirt, my dirtied jeans and slightly shredded boots and shrugged.

'Maybe this was a perfect and convenient excuse for me to go see the Court Physician.' I smiled and stuttered in my slow tread down the hill, 'This is _insane_. I can't be dreaming.' My conscience replied sarcastically, 'Well, duh, you're not.' I attached my bag to my stomach and undid the buckle, releasing a compressed brown poncho from inside to use to not alarm the guards in the front.

I anxiously strode passed them, forgetting to breathe when they looked at me before looking back ahead. Children ran past, playing and squealing, peasants and knights and guards off duty talked to another in clusters, walking away from me. The different social classes showed in their clothes and postures and I tried not to overthink my own stature. Gwaine was gone by the time I was in the lower town. I followed the beautiful pendragon flags at the centre of Camelot and continued my mission to a certain, awe-inspiring warlock.

_Tell me what you think and let me know if you have any inspiration for it. I would love to see what you come up with! _


	2. Golden Dreams

Hello again! Here is another prompt, which is inspired by Frozen 2. I don't know why! Musicals just make you really happy and energetic, right?! Loved the second movie a lot. Highly recommend :) Anyway, I hope you enjoy this little plot bunny, have at it!

Prompt: Arthur has dreams of memories of Merlin where he was young and still figuring out his magic, or having really symbolic dreams due to some celestial-being pushing for the golden age. Something in the real world could take place too ~ What type of mayhem could take up the knight's and Arthur's stressful lives in Camelot? Big brother Arthur stories are my favourite thing to read :D

Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin

...

The snow somehow made his eyes glow a new shade of azure blue, brighter than when they glowed a mesmerising gold tinge, sharper than any other sorcerer who has ever been witnessed.

He watched with wonder and gratitude at the world he was born into and listened to the ground hum and almost shuffle and begin a duet with the snow that lay gracefully atop it. The earth rumbled in delight, as if it had snuggled into a blanket with soup and watched the rain pour and slip across the windows of its cottage, as the fire crackled in front.

Merlin felt a giggle build in his throat, as he felt the earth's comfort and grew ever more excited as his pleasure built alongside it. A separate, lonely snowflake fell slowly above him.

"Wow…" he felt the world agree and chuckled when the snowflake landed cheekily onto the tip of his nose, as if to pinch his cheeks in fondness. The scarf his mother had made for him slowly slipped from his small shoulder on one side and fell into the snow with a thump. He smiled. He was still growing into it, his mother said that he'd grow up quickly. He was getting older and "would be a man soon", he had responded back to her enthusiastically.

He looked behind him at his home. The stool inside was waiting for him. To observe the snow as it landed, to see the seasons change alongside his friend, Will. But not this time. Something else was calling for him. An enchanted song was flowing over the trees, the ground was warning him of a new chapter, a discovery. And it would be his discovery, no one else's. His mission.

He was ready.

He tossed the scarf onto the stool inside, his mother absent in the house as he did so. He ran to the door. His fingers latched onto the door frame, hesitating for him and feeling as if it were a friend looking at Merlin with concern and worry for his decision. His eyebrows scrunched together in guilt.

He puffed out his chest and raised his chin, "Sorry, mum." With that, he raced through the snow into the snow-caked forest with intrigue. "Into the unknown we go!"

He started to speed up to reach the top of a steep part of the forest. His heart raced and his breath grew shorter and heavier, calf muscles tense as he rushed through the enchanted woods, determined. But the hum dancing below the snow, through his feet, made him go even faster.

He picked up the pace and smiled. He lifted his arms high, "Wooooo!" He sailed through all of the trees, elated as the wind picked up alongside him and swayed the trees left to right as he darted through trees side to side. The song grew louder and more stressed as if hearing his reply to its beck and call. He swooped past the trees, the leafless trees seeming to bend, defying the cold and frost, and the snow began to lift from the ground. It spun around him, anticipating the reunion.

Merlin kept running, not paying attention to how easily his feet seemed to drift over the snow and not sink into it. The song picked up, a feminine voice grew alongside the tune and joined its celebration. The hill began to dip as he got higher and higher and higher. He laughed and ran faster towards the edge with joy, not understanding clearly why it was he was so excited to see over it, but something was there, waiting for him, needing his company.

So he leapt.

The hill suddenly dipped and he realised it was a cliff, a dangerously high one. What shocked him the most was how safe he still felt. The world felt like it's centre of gravity and equilibrium had shifted, to someone else, somehow. The world felt suddenly slower and pinned onto _something_. Someone was supposed to catch him at the bottom, someone he could never look back on in hesitation. Someone warm and that the magic in him sung towards.

His body slowly twisted to look back on himself, from where he had left the hum of the earth, still plummeting towards the ground below. A silhouette of a woman appeared, flowing with a never-ending cycle of snow, the world still feeling slow but as if it were intentional and good. He reached out his arms towards it as it sung its song with more finality and strength. He could hear the smile in her voice, and he smiled back in glee.

At the bottom of the cliff, another figure began to solidify and materialise into the scene. He suddenly realised his perspective had changed. He felt like he was in his own body again, and not looking through the eyes of someone he knew but didn't just yet, not here. He squinted at the glow of the low-hanging sun. The female voice still held onto her last note.

He twirled around towards the cliff. His eyes widened as he saw what he thought _he_ was experiencing. It had felt so real, like it were him. But it wasn't. The scene was still slowed down, the figure sailing towards solid snow and the woman, whose body began to fade. He panicked and ran toward the little boy, arms outstretched, the woman beginning to fade and transform back into the snow his feet stumbled and crunched on top of. Her voice faded and slowed as it finally reached its end.

A name bellowed out of his throat without his control, "Merlin!" The boys eyes grew in trepidation, "Arthur!"

He wasn't going to make it. He shoved his shoulder forward with a rush of energy and slid across the thinner, crushed snow. In a flash, he felt a slight change to his weight, as the tiny child landed on his chest, his arms instinctively wrapping around him with a surprising amount of protectiveness to cushion his fall.

Arthur rolled onto his side at the impact but found he was too distracted by the suddenly small and young Merlin to feel the strain of catching a falling body, or to acknowledge the wind forced out of his lungs.

His breaths slowed down ever so slowly, but his heart still struggled to follow in sync with the sudden shock, choking and wheezing but still not recognising the pain of the way he caught Merlin.

His breathing began to slow, his heart still leaping from the unforeseen events. The boy's own heartbeat thrummed across Arthur's own chest in rhythm, his breath struggling as he tucked his face deeper into Arthur's shirt.

"Merlin" Arthur muttered shakily, "Merlin, are you okay?" He shuffled onto his back with Merlin still suffocating himself into his tunic. He grabbed at Merlin's small hands and relaxed them, Merlin seeming to trust him immediately, releasing his strong grip once Arthur had gently grabbed his wrist in concern.

Arthur sat upright steadily, folding his legs to make the boy more comfortable after his little stunt, "What in the world were you doing? Not only did you jump off a cliff like an absolute idiot, but you then started wasting yourself of air as soon as you got out of one accident? Honestly, Merlin." Arthur found himself smiling beside himself at the unoriginality of Merlin, always risking his life wherever Arthur went. But why was he here? Why did he seem so nonchalant about the whole situation?

He frowned, "What's going on?" He didn't notice Merlin's silence as he looked around his surroundings in alarm, "How did I get here? And why are you like this?" He raised his voice the more he questioned the strange predicament he suddenly was in.

"Arthur"

Arthur turned back towards the little body cradled in his arms with concern and unease. Merlin's head was dipped down. "Please don't leave me alone." The boy slowly looked upward to stare unwaveringly at Arthur. Arthur's mind suddenly stopped, and froze in that second that their eyes met, his body gaining goosebumps at what he saw.

A tiny boy, with a heavy mop of raven hair, chubby, child-like cheeks, reddened from the cold, stared at him as determined as the Merlin he knew. He felt safe and secure looking at this child. Something in him clicked just right as if something had finally filled itself in properly. He was shocked, but what shocked him more so to this sudden change is what he saw swirling in those innocent orbs.

Instead of a light and bright blue that reflected similar to his own eyes, were a pair of golden irises. They shone a shade of gold Arthur had never seen before, a gold that he did not feel fear from but a comforting warmth that flowed into his own eyes. The boy's pupils were like slits instead of their usual circular shape. The innocence in those eyes made both sense and absolute absurdity to Arthur.

Which made what happened next more confusing to him. His mouth opened without his command, "Never"

Merlin's smile grew large and his large ears tweaked as he laughed at Arthur in absolute happiness. He stood from his lap and ran behind Arthur, wrapping his arms around his neck. With Merlin's chin resting on Arthur's right shoulder, the golden glow from his eyes shone ever brighter and bounced its light, making Arthur squint from its intensity.

The snow around them began to float around them, the wind that had long died after Merlin's jump picked up once again. The thrum of natural magic flowing through Merlin shared its dance to Arthur. A wonder lit his eyes. The woman grew in the snowy tornado around them. She danced and began her song again. This time, it carried an echo, even louder and stronger than before.

Arthur's eyes grew heavy. He felt a pull at his soul and body. The girl's porcelain white arms reached out to him and he did the same to reach her, his legs not moving from where he had sat with Merlin. Her voice reached a high note that carried on, along the cliff and through the branches of the trees in symphony. She grew closer and their hands touched.

He felt sick as he felt himself lifted off the ground, spinning dizzily, being sucked into a black hole, away from this strange world he'd visited and back to reality. The last thing he heard was Merlin's light giggle, somehow sensing him goofily waving goodbye to him, his eyes swirling in a bath of pure gold.

Arthur woke abruptly, his body instinctively sitting him upright in alert. His breaths were slow but heavy. His forehead was wrinkled with confusion and bewilderment at what he had just witnessed.

He looked over to his left and saw his beautiful wife sleeping soundly, somehow looking perfect and sweet as she always was even in sleep with bed-ridden hair. He silently laughed at her, thinking himself the luckiest man on the earth for having someone as considerate and generous as Guinivere.

His smile slowly vanished as the dream he had just woken suddenly from recollected itself vividly, each detail remembered. Merlin. A _young_ Merlin. It had felt so real, so right and true. The transition was weird but he couldn't shake off the funny feeling that something about that 'dream' wasn't just that; a dream. It was a message, it had a meaning behind it.

And those eyes. Those golden eyes that had glowed from a young Merlin's eyes, the feeling of the world dancing under his feet, the innocence and the purity of the colour in his eyes. But what did it all mean? What were those hums and tunes he had heard? Was that...nature? Singing? The earth rejoicing over something?

Arthur sighed in defeat. He whispered under his breath, "What does it all mean?" He saw the Merlin he knew now, his friend's goofy grin next to the other little Merlin he just met. He shook his head in hilarity and without noticing, the word slipped out of his mouth once again as his head hit the pillow once more, "Never."

….

The snow that lay across the courtyard outside of the King's window began to shift. The snow lifted itself up with arms it didn't have before. A woman began to grow out of the heap of snow. Her eyes opened and violet irises stared out into the night at the Once and Future King's window, unaware of the new chapter he would be becoming apart of soon.

She saw Merlin, soundlessly asleep in his own bed, bags under his eyes, still reaching out for deep sleep. A humble smile grew on her lips and she began to sing softly, "Into the unknown…" Her smile grew, her teeth growing more visible, a purer white than the snow, "The Golden Age grows near King Arthur." Her hand rose higher, pointing vaguely towards Gauis' chambers, where Merlin slowly slid into the best sleep he had had in a long few years. A golden glow rose from her fingers as she whispered, "It is about time you truly met your friend, and your protector, Lord Emrys."

A guard nearby heard a crunch and the wind grew stronger, a song and tune passing his ears. He ran around the corner towards the sound and saw a hill of snow close to the horses float towards the ground again. His eyebrows pinched together, "What th-" before slipping over a slick piece of ice that had frozen over the stone. His head hit the floor and he cursed his humiliation, even if no one was around to have seen it. He swore he heard a high-pitched giggle in the wind but shook it off and continued his rounds, "Hate this blasted snow."

...

Do you like it? Did it bring forth any ideas of your own? Let me know!


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